Current events involving politics, political office holders, political candidates, world events, local events, crime and other public affairs issues are discussed. Business news items as well as science and technology issues may appear.

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Monday, November 30, 2015

On December 2nd, the road to Hoover Dam will be closed at the first Security Checkpoint on the Nevada side until 7:30 a.m. local time to accommodate work on the Hoover Dam Visitors Center roof. This road is normally closed overnight until 6:00 a.m., so this closure will delay access to Hoover Dam until 7:30 a.m. for visitors. — at Hoover Dam.

Even on the coldest of cold days, mornings are worth experiencing at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Josh Packer captured this stunning image last week at the park’s Snake River Overlook. It was a cold morning -- a blistering -24 degrees -- and everything was covered in hoar frost, making the landscape a dazzling white. Photo courtesy of Josh Packer.

At more than 14,000 feet tall, Mount Rainier in Mount Rainier National Park stands as an icon in the#Washington landscape. Capped with glaciers, the peak is always a stunning white while the wildflower meadows and forests that ring the mountain offer visitors more colorful places to explore. Hiking trails range from easy to extreme, but all of them have incredible views of this amazing park. Photo by Kathy Chrestensen (www.sharetheexperience.org). — atMount Rainier National Park.

Almost every beginning angler has unknowingly broken one or two golden fishing rules while learning about the sport. While mistakes are one of the ways you learn, you don’t want to make the same mistakes twice. As you evolve as an angler, you will reflect back on your first few fishing trips and realize that you probably could have avoided a few cold stares or harsh lectures from fellow anglers by being more mindful of others.

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. -- A thankful grandma recently recognized an anonymous seamstress who helped her granddaughter feel like a princess when she was crowned the homecoming queen of Harrisonville High School.

7-year-old Jordan Overcast is currently battling brain cancer and often sings Taylor Swift songs to help her through her treatment. In the process of helping the 7-year-old fulfill a life-long dream of meeting Swift, the high school in her hometown named Jordan the honorary homecoming queen.

The holiday season is just around the corner, and it’s not just the enthusiastic consumers and businesses that are gearing up for it. Online fraudsters are getting ready for the busiest shopping time of the year as well.

According to a new study by ACI Worldwide, retailers and consumers should brace themselves for a higher level of online fraud across channels as online retail fraud attempts have increased by 30 percent in the past year.

Bradley Cox, an Independence resident, was known for many things. But, his niece says, first and foremost, Cox was a loving and devoted father to his eight daughters. Cox was killed when a blown tire caused him to lose control of the van he was driving Saturday in Miami County. Hear more about Cox and learn how you can help.

Weather forecasters from the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron are predicting a 60 percent chance of favorable weather at the scheduled time for launch of Orbital ATK CRS-4 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, targeted for 5:55 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 3, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This is the company’s fourth scheduled cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

Cygnus will carry more than 7,000 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory to support dozens of approximately 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 45 and 46. This first Cygnus mission using the Atlas V launch system provides increased performance and flexibility to the Orbital ATK cargo delivery service. The new experiments arriving to the orbital laboratory will challenge and inspire future scientists and explorers. Science payloads will offer a new life science facility that will support studies on cell cultures, bacteria and other microorganisms; a microsatellite deployer and the first microsatellite that will be deployed from the space station; and experiments that will study the behavior of gases and liquids, clarify the thermo-physical properties of molten steel, and evaluate flame-resistant textiles.

Cygnus also will deliver replacement cargo items including a set of Microsoft HoloLens devices for use in NASA’s Sidekick project, a safety jet pack astronauts wear during spacewalks known as SAFER, and high pressure nitrogen and oxygen tanks to plug into the station’s air supply network.

The spacecraft will spend more than a month attached to the space station before its destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere in January 2016, disposing of about 3,000 pounds of trash.

Brazilian police are on the lookout for a man dressed as Santa Claus from Sao Paulo. The individual is wanted in connection with hijacking a helicopter and then proceeding to hold the pilot hostage.

The bad Santa rented the chopper from an air taxi service at the Campo Marte airport in the city. He wanted the aircraft to carry out a Black Friday “surprise,” the Sao Paulo state security secretariat said on Saturday, as cited by Reuters.

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in a close game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. The game was played on a cold, drizzly day. The final score was 30-22 in favor of the Chiefs. Below is a photo taken pregame on the field of Arrowhead Stadium.

On Saturday, November 28 satellite data showed that the center of former Tropical Storm Sandra was close to land. However, imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite on Sunday, November 29, 2015 revealed that Sandra's center had not yet made an official landfall as it slowed over the southern Gulf of California.

At 1705 UTC (12:05 p.m. EST) on Nov. 29, Sandra's remnant low pressure area was located over the far southern gulf of California near 24 degrees north latitude and 108 degrees west longitude. Sandra had a minimum central pressure near 1010 millibars.

This GOES-West image from Nov. 29 at 1800 UTC (1 p.m. EST) shows the clouds associated with the remnants of Sandra in the southern Gulf of California, just off-shore and southwest of Culiacan, Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center reported that "the low is losing its identity...and will dissipate shortly as it finally moves inland the coast of Mexico over the state of Sinaloa. In its wake...strong high pressure over the Great Basin of the U.S. will interact with troughing (an elongated area of low pressure) near the Baja California peninsula, which will bring a quick surge of northwesterly to northerly winds of 20-25 knots down the entire length of the Gulf of California by early this evening. These winds increase to 30 knots by early on Monday, Nov. 30 with seas building to 9 feet. The winds then diminish slightly back to 20-25 knots early on Tuesday, Dec. 1 with seas of 8 to 9 feet.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN - NASA's GPM Satellite Sees Heavy Rain in Tropical cyclone Tuni Tropical Cyclone Tuni continued to move southeast through the Southern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Nov. 29 as NASA/JAXA's Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite passed overhead. GPM measured the rate in which rain was falling within the storm and found heavy rain, falling at a rate of more than 1.6 inches (40.6 mm) per hour.At 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST), Tuni's maximum sustained winds were near 40 knots (46 mph74 kph). It was located near 16.5 south latitude and 170.6 west longitude, about 132 miles south of Pago Pago, American Samoa. Tuni was moving to the southeast at 13 knots. (14.9 mph/24.08 kph).Tuni will move southeast, maintaining current intensity. After today, the system will become extra-tropical.

This movie was about as different from an earlier movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as it could get.

Ian McKellen plays an elderly Sherlock Holmes. The elderly Holmes wants to correct some of the fictional embellishments that Dr. Watson added when he wrote the Sherlock Holmes tales. The problem is that Holmes has an Alzheimer's-like condition and Holmes has trouble remembering important details.

Holmes has a housekeeper and the housekeeper has a son. Holmes and the son become close.

The movie has numerous flashbacks, but not so many that the viewer loses track.

The story moves slowly. There is little action, unlike the Downey Jr. - Law movie. The story moves along mostly by dialogue. But it held our interest.

It is probably good that we did not see the movie in the theater. The big screen was not necessary for this movie.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

President Barack Obama said Saturday that the Colorado shooting “is not normal” and advocated for stricter gun control.

“This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we’re going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them,” Obama said in statement Saturday morning. “Period. Enough is enough.”

In 2013, there were a whopping 415 deaths due to guns in Chicago. In April of that year, officials at the city’s Cook County decided in their infinite wisdom the best tactic would be to impost a $25 “violence tax” on every gun bought in the county (because you can’t buy a gun in Chicago).

A chance encounter in June between a U.S. government source and a drug-trafficking suspect eventually led to the discovery of a hydroponic marijuana distribution ring in South Florida, according to federal court documents in Miami.

It also led to the arrest of an 18-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident, Jordan Campo, who allegedly had links to the drug distribution ring that imported high-grade hydroponic marijuana from California and Colorado, according to a criminal complaint filed by an FBI special agent.

During his studies at Iowa Agricultural College - what is now Iowa State University, George Washington Carver was active in a wide array of student activities. He was a member of the Art Club, the German Club, and the Welch Eclectic Society to name a few.

George especially enjoyed military drill, a bi-weekly requirement for all male students during their freshman and sophomore years. After Carver completed his obligatory two-year service, he continued the activity and ultimately reached the rank of Quartermaster during his senior year. This photo shows George participating in military drill circa 1893. Carver is in the first row, fourth from the left.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN - Tropical Storm Tuni FormsTropical cyclone Tuni formed today in the Southern Pacific about 157 miles west of Pago Pago, American Samoa. It was centered near 14.2 south latitude and 173.4 west longitude. Tuni was moving to the east-southeast at 11 knots and had maximum sustained winds near 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph).American Samoa, Niue are expected to feel the effects of Tuni. This an image of Tuni from NOAA's GOES-West satellite on Nov. 28 at 1352 UTC (8:52 a.m. EST)Tuni is forecast to east-southeast, later southeast, while intensifying slightly. In a couple of days, Tuni will transition to an extra-tropical storm.

Author J.K. Rowling has finally revealed why Harry Potter named his son after Professor Severus Snape.

In an epilogue in the final novel "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the wizard is shown sending his own kids off to Hogwarts but many fans expressed their confusion as to why he named his second son Albus Severus, after headmaster Albus Dumbledore and pesky teacher Snape.

The 32-year-old "In the Heart of the Sea" star gave back to his parents in a big way: by paying off their lifelong debts. Chris’ younger brother Liam Hemsworth revealed his sibling’s altruistic deed in a recent interview with The Independent when asked about the life-changing effect stardom can have.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Feel like the items in your shopping cart are growing, while your bank account stays the same? Then you might be able to relate to this black hole. This artist illustration shows a black hole discovered in July 2015 that grew much more quickly than its host galaxy. The discovery calls into question previous assumptions on the development of galaxies. Learn more:http://go.nasa.gov/1XluxZb#BlackFriday#BlackHoleFriday

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Wyandotte County District Attorney has charged a 44-year-old man for torturing or cruelly beating his 7-year-old son and battering a 29-year-old woman. Michael Jones faces aggravated battery, aggravated assault with a firearm and child abuse in connection with crimes alleged to have happened on Wednesday in the 5200 block of North 99th Street.

After a spectacular sunset at Lake McDonald, visitors at Glacier National Park in Montana were greeted with some beautiful alpenglow last week. Photo by Jacob W. Frank, National Park Service. — at Glacier National Park.

One little 8-year-old girl from Illinois sits down at her kitchen table with a big box full of colored beads and makes crosses to send to police officers around the country. When asked why she does it, her answer was simple.

A complex storm system will bring significant impacts to much of the Central and Southern Plains through the holiday weekend. Significant accumulations of ice and snow will bring dangerous travel conditions and potential power outages to portions of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Further east, heavy rain could cause river and flash flooding across the Southern Plains.

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Ben Redmond and Matt Christiansen are breathing a little easier now that the most dangerous part of their job is over.

The pair, along with a handful of engineers and technicians, spent the last two months inerting 170 Dahlgren and 6.4-inch Brooke projectiles that Navy divers recovered from the CSS Georgia this summer.

Saudi Arabia is drilling for a resource possibly more precious than oil.

Over the last 24 years, it has tapped hidden reserves of water to grow wheat and other crops in the Syrian Desert. This time series of data shows images acquired by three different Landsat satellites operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The green fields that dot the desert draw on water that in part was trapped during the last Ice Age. In addition to rainwater that fell over several hundred thousand years, this fossil water filled aquifers that are now buried deep under the desert's shifting sands.

Saudi Arabia reaches these underground rivers and lakes by drilling through the desert floor, directly irrigating the fields with a circular sprinkler system. This technique is called center-pivot irrigation.

Because rainfall in this area is now only a few centimeters (about one inch) each year, water here is a non-renewable resource. Although no one knows how much water is beneath the desert, hydrologists estimate it will only be economical to pump water for about 50 years.

In this series of four Landsat images, the agricultural fields are about one kilometer (.62 miles) across. The images were created using reflected light from the short wave-infrared, near-infrared, and green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (bands 7, 4, and 2 from Landsat 4 and 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ sensors). Using this combination of wavelengths, healthy vegetation appears bright green while dry vegetation appears orange. Barren soil is a dark pink, and urban areas, like the town of Tubarjal at the top of each image, have a purple hue.

Landsat 4 launched in 1982 and provided scientific data for 11 years until 1993. NASA launched Landsat 5 in 1984 and it ran a record-breaking 28 years, sending back what was likely its last data in 2011. Landsat 7 is still up and running; it was launched in 1999. The data from these and other Landsat satellites has been instrumental in increasing our understanding of forest health, storm damage, agricultural trends, urban growth, and many other ongoing changes to our land.

NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat, and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images that is freely available data over the Internet.

The next Landsat satellite, now known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) and later to be called Landsat 8, is scheduled for launch in January 2013.

(CNN) — It could be any seven-year-old boy’s letter to Santa — with one heart-wrenching exception: topping the list of requests for a walkie-talkie, Jurassic World game, and remote-control helicopter is a plea to find the gunman who shot him.

Fun #facts: Columbia River Basin resident fish spend their entire life cycle in fresh water and include warm water species such as bass and walleye, and cold water species such as cutthroat trout, bull trout and kokanee.

Two shoppers kicked off the Black Friday madness early, throwing punches and wrestling each other to the ground in the middle of a crowded shopping mall in Lexington, Kentucky, on Thanksgiving evening.

ATLANTIC OCEAN - No Commotion in the Atlantic on Black Friday - While people may be running around like crazy, the Atlantic Ocean basin remains quiet, tropically speaking. For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico: Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.This is a composite image of the Atlantic Ocean as seen from NOAA's GOES-East satellite this morning at 1145 UTC (6:45 a.m. EST). and that is Hurricane Sandra near Mexico's west coast (Eastern Pacific).